American Legion

The American Legion is a US war veterans' organization that was founded on 15 March 1919 at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France by members of the American Expeditionary Forces after the end of World War I. After World War II, its enrollments doubled from 1.7 million to 3.3 million, and it played a leading role in the drafting and passing of the GI Bill in 1944; its members also provided assistance at VA hospitals and clinics and lobbied the US Congress on behalf of veterans and service members. From the 1930s to 1950s, the American Legion promoted "Americanism", a nationalistic ideology which promoted regular church attendance, daily family prayer, the religious training of children, support for schoolteachers making loyalty oaths, anti-communism, treason trials for CPUSA members, and investigating the ACLU to see if it was a communist front organization after the ACLU claimed that the Legion had replaced the Ku Klux Klan as the most active agent of intolerance and repression in the country. In 2018, the American Legion had 2 million members.